Housing Takes a Hit

By
Andres Carbacho-Burgos, Mark Zandi

In this webinar, we consider the prospects for the housing market in 2018 in light of the recent changes to the tax code.

The housing market’s fundamentals are strong, including solid job growth, low unemployment, and low mortgage rates. But the tax law changes will have an impact, particularly in parts of the country where the mortgage interest and property tax deductions are important.

The Brexit saga is quickly coming to a head, but it is increasingly unclear which direction it is headed. Join Mark Zandi and the Moody’s Analytics team as they assess the global macroeconomic implications of the range of possible scenarios from No Brexit to No Deal.

The housing market in Canada seems to have stabilized. House price growth slowed between early last year and the middle of this year, though home sales and house price growth increased in July and August.

The U.S. business cycle has entered its boom phase. This is a period that typically comes closer to the end of the cycle, just prior to a recession. It is characterized by robust economic growth, tightening labor and product markets, intensifying wage and price pressures, monetary tightening, and higher interest rates. Another feature of the boom phase of a business cycle is excessive risk-taking somewhere in the financial system. This fuels the boom and is eventually at the center of the subsequent bust. Subprime mortgage loans were the obvious culprit a decade ago, runaway internet stocks that pumped up a stock market bubble were the problem in the early-2000s recession, and the savings and loan crisis incited the early 1990s downturn.